4 Times Michael Jackson Proved He’s a Great Songwriter (And Not Just a Great Performer)

While Michael Jackson was known for delivering iconic performances and pop culture moments(like that Motown 25 moonwalk), he also had a lot of talent as a song crafter. Here are four times that Jackson showed everyone he could write the songs, and not just bring them to life on stage.

Videos by American Songwriter

Writing “Bad” All By Himself

“Bad” was actually written entirely by Jackson, who later explained that the song was meant to be about somebody who was “bad”, but in a good way.

“‘Bad’ is a song about the street. It’s about this kid from a bad neighborhood who gets to go away to a private school,” he wrote in his autobiography Moonwalk. “He comes back to the old neighborhood when he’s on a break from school, and the kids from the neighborhood start giving him trouble. He sings, ‘I’m bad, you’re bad, who’s bad, who’s the best?’ He’s saying that when you’re strong and good, then you’re bad.”

Writing “We Are The World” with Lionel Richie

Jackson played a crucial part in the “We Are The World” video in 1985, but he also co-wrote the song. Lionel Richie, who worked on the song with him, only had good things to say about Jackson’s co-writing abilities.

“Sometimes a co-writer can be a problem, meaning you’re either on the same page, or you’re not. Michael was a true co-parent. If I said, ‘we are the world,’ he said, ‘we are the children,’ Richie shared. “We kind of knocked the lyrics out in probably about an hour and a half, two hours.”

Writing “Billie Jean” All By Himself

“Billie Jean” is still perhaps Jackson’s most well-known hit, and the pop star wrote it all by himself. It would seem that the idea came quite naturally to him, as it was inspired by personal experiences.

He shared in his autobiography, Moonwalk, however, that “Billie Jean” was not inspired by a real person. “The girl in the song is a composite of people my brothers have been plagued with over the years,” Jackson wrote. “I could never understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone’s child when it wasn’t true.”

Writing “Say Say Say” with Paul McCartney

When The King of Pop calls and asks if you wanna make some hits, you answer. That’s how it happened when he and Paul McCartney got together to write “Say Say Say”. McCartney talked about the writing process of the song with James Dean Bradfield.

“It came very easily. ‘Cause I was quite excited to write with him. he was quite excited to write with me, so we were popping off each other,” McCartney shared. “Yeah, and um, so we just did it, as I say, it was quite a short session.”

The song also features both Jackson and McCartney on vocals.

Photo by: Lester Cohen/ Getty Images